Daniel orme



(No Model.) Y 2-Shreets-Sheet 1. D. ORME. COIN GONTROLLED GAS METER.

Tm: wams parus co. PncroALxruo, wAswNaToN, D. c.

(No Model.) Y 2 sheets-sheet 2.

D.. ORME. v COIN CONTROLLED GAS METER.

No. 540,402. Patented June 4, 1895.

4 Sowas FFICE..

DANIEL ORME, o'E oLDHAM, ENGLAND.

COIN-CONTROLLED GAS-METER.

SPECIFICATIMON forming part of Letters Patent No. 540,402, dated June 4,1895. Application filed November 16, 1894:. Serial No. 529,004. (Nomodel.) Patented in England August 27, 1894, No. 16,281.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL ORME, asubj ect of the Queen of Great Britainand Ireland, residing at Oldham,Lancaster county,England, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in Prepaid Gas-Meters, of which thefollowing is a specification.

A patent for thisinvention has been granted in England, No. 16,281,dated August 27, 1894..

The present invention relates to prepayment gas meters through which apre-determined quantity of gas is, allowed to pass to the consumer onthe insertion into a coin receiver of a coin or token representing theValue of the required quantity of gas. The improvements may loe usedgenerally in connection with wet or dry gas meters of this type, but Iwill describe the invention as more particularly applicable inconjunction with an invention for which I have already obtained a patentin the United States, No. 497,682, ot 1893. In this patent I havedescribed coin receivers with which I combined means forincreasing ordiminishing the quantity of gas delivered in accordance with the marketor local price of gas.

The chief point'sof myf present invention are the employment of a coinreceiver of greatly simplified construction and working, and thetransference of the means for increasing or diminishing the quantity oflgas to be delivered, from the coin receiver to gearing or parts notforming part of the said coin receiver, and thereby rendering moredifficult or impossible the fraudulent manipulationof the meter.

The improvements will be more easily explained and understood byproceeding at once to a consideration of the annexed two sheets ofdrawings.

On Sheet l, Figure l is a front view of the dials and mechanism of aprepayment meter fitted with my improved coin-receiver and means forvarying the quantity of gas delivered. Fig. 2 is a plan of Fig. l. Fig.3 is a side view of the adjustable quadrant which carries thechange-Wheel, which varies the quantity of gas delivered. Fig. 4 is aplan of Fig. 3. Fig. 4.a illustrates amodied mode of adjusting andsetting the quadrant- On Sheet 2, Fig. 5 isa side elevation of theapparatus at right angles to Fig. l. Fig. 6 is a plan view, partly insection, of the coin-receiver. Fig. 7 is a vertical section of thecoinreceiver. Fig. 8 is afront View of the driven end of theworm-spindle, which is operated by turning the coin-receiver. Fig. 8a isan end view of the coin-receiving cylinder, and Fig. 9 is a perspectiveview of Fig. 8.

It will be understood that the worm of the spindle at gears with awormwheel on a spindle a which carries a valve c", the said valvegoverning the admission of gas at the entrance b, the admitted gas owingto the consumerthrough the exit c. The valve spindle opens and closesthevalve by means of a cam, a4, dotted lines, Fig. 2.

The present improvements relate in the first place to the coin receiverand this I will now describe.

A branch d projects from the casing containing the valve spindle andvalve, and this branch d contains the worm spindle a. The outer end ofthe spindle a terminates in a disk a (see Figs. 6, 8 and 9) and the diskcarries two drivingprojections a2. Upon the end of the branch d I t ahollow cylindrical casing e which contains a revoluble cylindrical bodyf formed with a coin receiving slot f. A short spindle f2 projects fromthe cylinderf through the outer end of the casing e andis furnished witha, handle g whereby the cylinder may be turned. The cylinderf isrecessed at its inner end as clearly shown in Fig. 6 to admit theprojections c2. The cylinder is also cut out midway as clearly appearsin Figs. 6 and 7, and at the outer end f it has a set off so asftopresent two shoulders fifil which are intended to limit the revolutionof the cylnderf by coming into contact with a stop pin h the position ofwhich is indicated in dotted lines, in Fig. 8a and'also at the end ofthe casing e in Fig. 5 this pin h being screwed through the end of thecasing.

The coin receiving slot f goes entirely through the cylinderfand is wideenough at the top to receive a coin of the proper size and value. At thefoot the slot is contracted so that the coin shall not drop through thecylinder, but will remain therein until the IOO cylinder is turned. Onthe other hand if a i smaller coin of less value should beinserted, theslot is wide enough at' the foot to let it drop entirely through intothe coin receptacle as soon as the cylinder is moved, without affectingthe apparatus at all.

It will be seen that the casing e has a slot e into which a coin of theproper size and value marked q in Fig. 6 is placed. It drops down intothe slot in the cylinderf and rests upon the contracted edges of theslot beneath. In this position the projecting edge of the coin on oneside has entered between the pro-- jections a2 from the disk a. Thecylinderf may now be turned by means of the handle g and the edge of thecoin asitis carried round by the cylinder engages with the projections01,2 and acting like a screw driver, turns the disk a and the spindle a.This has the effect of turning and advancing the cam and opening the gasadmission valve. W'hen the cylinderf has been turned round rather morethan half a revolution, the wide end of the slot f and the coin comeopposite to the delivery slot e2 in the casing leading to the coinreceptacle, and the coin drops through the slot. At the same time theshoulder]3 comes against the stop h and further rotation of the cylinderis arrested. The cylinder is now turned back, the spindle a remaining inthe position into which it has been turned, and the projections a2having been left in a position which enables the next coin inserted toslip between them. In turning the cylinderf back, the shoulder f4 comesagainst the stop h and arrests the cylinder in a position which bringsthe slot f exactly in line with the slot e', ready to receive anothercoin. As the cylinder f fits the casing e closely for a portion of itscircumference, it is impossible for a fraudulent consumer to recover thecoin by attaching it to apiece of cord or iiexible wire. Further asmaller coin of less value than the appointed coin would also fail toactuate the mechanism, as before it could operate the spindle a., itwould drop through the contracted end of the slotinto the coinreceptacle. In my former patent I combined means with the coin receiver`for varying the quantity of gas to be delivered in accordance with themarket or local price of gas. In the present apparatus I isolate suchvarying means from the coin receiver and obtain the same result by usingchange Wheels in the body of the apparatus. The applied change wheelgears with the usual mechanism of the meter, receivin g motion from theupright shaft or other means whereby the valve spindle is rotated ormoved to and fro. By using a change wheel having more or fewer teeth,the change wheel and consequently the bowl which operates the cam andvalve spindle are moved at a determinable rate of speed, and more orless gas is delivered to the consumer.

Referring now to Fig. l of the drawings I mount an adjustable quadrant'i loosely upon a sleeve on the outer end of the valve spindle j. Thequadrant t' which is shown separately in Figs. 3 and 4 has a curved slott" through which a fixed screwed stud l.: projects from the framebehind. A milled nut la screws on the end of the stud and is used to jamthe quadrant Q1 in any position. One side of the quadrant t' has a bosscarrying ashort spindle l. The inner end of this spindle is furnishedwith a toothed pinion m which gears with a similarly toothed spur wheel'rt mounted on the axis of the cam and operating by means of a bowlcarried on a bracket, to move the valve spindle to and fro as alreadydescribed in my aforesaid UnitedStates patent of 1894. The pinion m andspur wheel n appear in dotted lines in Fig. l and also in Figs. 2 and 5.

On the other end of the short spindle Z I place a change wheel o whichcan easily be removed and replaced by a change wheel having a greater orless number of teeth. The end of the spindle Z is screwed and the changewheel o is secured on the spindle by the milled nut p. The change wheelogears with and is driven by the pinion r which is part of the gearing ofthe meter receiving motion from the upright shaft s or other drivingmeans from the bellows or measuring cylinder of the meter.

As the change wheel 0 is thus the medium of communication between themechanism'of the meter and the means for opening and closing the gassupply valve at b it will be evident that by increasing or diminishingthe number of teeth in the change wheel o the period between the openingand closing of the supply valve may be lengthened or shortened atpleasure and so as to give a greater or less quantity of gas in exchangefor the inserted coin. For example referring to Fig. l suppose that thecoin inserted in the coin re- .ceiver is the equivalent in market valueof twenty-tive feet of gas, it will be noted that the number of teeth inthe wheel 0 is twentytive, each tooth in this case representing a footof gas. Should the market price of gas fall, so as to render thecoin,'value for thirty feet of gas for example, then the wheel oftwenty-five teeth would be replaced by a wheel having thirty teeth. Inthe same manner if the market price of gas were to rise, so that theinserted coin has a purchasing power of twenty feet only, the changewheel o would contain twenty teeth.

Lest the jam nut 7a should not be sufficiently secure to keep the wheelso and o" in their proper relative driving position I provide an abutmentt2 on the quadrant i, a set screw t being provided to adjust exactly thedepth to which the teeth of the wheels 0, r shall engage. As thequadrant i is pivoted on the same axial center as the spur wheel n itwill be evident that any adjustment of the quadrant will not affect thegearing of the pinion m with the wheel n seeing that the pinion fm. iscarried by the quadrant. As

lOO

TIO

modified means for adjusting and setting the I could correspondinglyturn and adjust the quadrant. t

The rest of the mechanism shown in the drawings is not material to myinvention and I need not therefore describe it in detail.

The pointer rx is mounted on the valve spindle and is turned by theaction of the coin receiving mechanism to indicate on the dial w thequantity of gas which has been paid for. The three remaining pointersfc, y, z in front ot their respective dials are the usual indieatingpointers and need not further be referred to.

The cutaway part of the cylinder about the reduced end of the slotserves a useful purpose, as by this the coin, if introduced before thecylinder is turned back with theinlet end of its slot in line with thecoin chute, will be prevented from entering the Wrong end ot the slot7il. e., the discharge end,which would lock the cylinder and prevent theoperation of the machine. The coin with the improved cylinder simplyengages the edge of the cut-away part and thus it will beheld up outvot'engagement with the slot.

I claim as my inventionl. In pre-payment gas meters, a coin receiver,consisting of a cylinder f formed as described, contained within acasing e formed with coin inlet and outlet slots, the cylinder f havinga coin slot extending entirely through it from side to side wide at thetop to admit freely a coin ot' the proper size, and sufficiently narrowat the foot to retain the said proper coin until the cylinder is turnedhalt' round but at the same time wide enough to permit a coin of asmaller size to pass therethrough and so as not to operate themechanism, in combination with the lingers a2 projecting from, or from adisk or part on, the end of the worm spin dle a, the whole arranged andoperating said fingers lying normally on opposite sides of the coin slotto engage different sides of the same coin substantially as hereinbeforedescribed and shown.

2. In a coin freed apparatus, the coin freed mechanism and the coincylinder arranged to receive the coin, said cylinder having a slotthrough it for the coin and having a cut away part about the slot toprevent the coin from entering the slot from that side, substantially asdescribed.

3. In combination in a coin freed apparatus the coin freed mechanism andthe coin cylinder having a slot through it with a reduced portion andhaving a cutaway part about the reduced portion of the slot,substantially as described.

4. In combination, in a prepayment gas meter, the meter mechanism, the.supply valve and the intermediate transmitting mechanism between thesaid meter mechanism and the supply valve comprising the removablechange wheel o and the adjustable support for said wheel, consisting ofthe rack quadrant with the worm for operating and holding the samesubstantially as described.

5. In combination, in a prepayment gas me ter, the meter mechanism, thesupplyl valve and the intermediate transmitting mechanism comprising theremovable change speed wheel o, the wheel nl and the wheel m between thewheels 0 and n said Wheels o and m being carried by an adjustablesupport arranged to be moved concentric with the wheel fn, substantiallyas described.

6. In combination in a prepayment gas meter7 the meter mechanism, thevalve and the intermediate transmitting mechanism comprising theremovable change wheel o, the wheel n, the wheel m between o and n andthe adjustable support for the wheels o and m comprising the diskarranged to be adjusted about the axis of the wheel u substantially asdescribed.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence oftwowitnesses.

DANIEL ORME. Witnesses:

DAVID FULTON, JOSHUA ENTwIsLn.

